"We are not going to allow a few Seattle ultraliberal environmental zealots to destroy what took generations to build," proclaimed then–state Sen. Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, in Richland.
"In case you don't understand the urgency of this, think about this: The bulldozers are coming," said state Rep. Shirley Hankins, R-Richland. "The gun is at our heads, and we need to act right now before they pull the trigger."
David Neiwert
Two J Pod whales and a calf off Lime Kiln Point State Park on San Juan Island last July.
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Since 2001, however, the Bush administration has opposed any breaching program, reverting to a reliance on barging. A federal judge's May 2005 ruling that the barging program is failing, and demanding the government re-examine its salmon- recovery progress, was greeted with warnings from the Dry Side that doing so had better not put dam removal back on the table: "Changes may need to be made, but the dams are going nowhere," said U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, the Republican who represents Eastern Washington's 4th District.
A state-brokered accord announced last week that would spill water at critical times to aid salmon runs, while compensating farmers and finding ways to prepare for their water needs during those times, could short-circuit any conflict by bolstering salmon runs sufficiently without dam removal. Still, salmon scientists have been adamant all along that the only way to bring back the salmon runs to a modicum of health will require a free-flowing Snake River—something spills don't achieve.
Should it emerge, however, that the orca listing indeed does affect the fate of those dams, the cultural war could reach new heights—especially since Western Washingtonians see the killer whales in a similarly iconic light.
Killer whales, after all, reside atop the Sound's food chain, and are thus one of the real indicator species for the overall health of our inland waters. If they disappear, it will toll a death knell for our way of life.
The bigger picture, as the NMFS's Brent Norberg suggests, is that the orca listing is already certain to have a positive impact on the Puget Sound ecosystem, and perhaps beyond it as well, by underscoring that they are simply some of the most prominent occupants of a vast and complex ecosystem—as the Seattle City Council suggested six years ago.
"I think in general what gets missed in the public mind is that there are substantial things being done already on the part of fish and clean water and so on before you ever get to the whale link," Norberg said. "The whales, however, because of their charismatic position in the public consciousness, make a really good focal point to try and leverage more beneficial actions on the part of those other things that are already being done.
"They make a positive argument for doing things to benefit fish. They help make a positive argument for doing things to clean up persistent pollution of sediments in the water. Those are good things that are going to benefit not only the whales in the long term but other species, too."
Including, of course, human beings. But whether that argument will carry over to the Columbia River—and Eastern Washington farmers—will depend on what scientists learn about the orcas in the coming years.
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David Neiwert is a Seattle freelance journalist and author, as well as the editor of the blog Orcinus (dneiwert.blogspot.com). His most recent book is Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community.
